Page 344 - DMGT402_MANAGEMENT_PRACTICES_AND_ORGANIZATIONAL_BEHAVIOUR

Unit 16: Organisational Culture

2. Organisational Resistance: Organisations, by their very nature are conservative. They Notes
actively resist change. Some of the organisational resistances are explained below:
(a) Resource Constraints: Resources are major constraints for many organisations. The
necessary financial, material and human resources may not be available to the
organisation to make the needed changes. Further, those groups in organisation
that control sizable resources often see change as a threat. They tend to be content
with the way things are.
(b) Structural Inertia: Some organisational structures have in-built mechanism for
resistance to change. For example, in a bureaucratic structure where jobs are narrowly
defined and lines of authority are clearly spelled out, change would be difficult. This
is so because formalization provides job descriptions, rules, and procedures for
employees to follow. The people who are hired into an organisation are chosen for
fit; they are then shaped and directed to behave in certain ways. When an organisation
is confronted with change, this structural inertia acts as a counterbalance to sustain
stability.
(c) Sunk Costs: Some organisations invest a huge amount of capital in fixed assets. If an
organisation wishes to introduce change, then difficulty arises because of these sunk
costs.
(d) Politics: Organisational change may also shift the existing balance of power in an
organisation. Individuals or groups who hold power under the current arrangement
may be threatened with losing these political advantages in the advent of change.
(e) Threat to established power relationships: Any redistribution of decision-making
authority can threaten long established power relationships within the organisation.
Managers may therefore resist change that introduces participative decision making
because they feel threatened.
(f) Threat to expertise: Change in organisational pattern may threaten the expertise of
specialized groups. Therefore, specialists usually resist change.
(g) Group Inertia: Even if individuals want to change their behaviour, group norms may
act as a constraint. For example, if union norms dictate resistance to any unilateral
change made by management, an individual member of the union who may otherwise
be willing to accept the changes may resist it.

Notes One of the reasons why managing change is so difficult is because change is so final.
That is, once a change is made, one cannot go back to the original conditions. The reason
for this can be explained by the diagram below.
Original State Change State New State
A B C

Each of the boxes describes a state of nature. A is the situation as it exists prior to a change.
State B is the state after change. Assume that after state B it is decided that the change was
a poor idea and we wish to go back to state A. This is impossible because A did not include
having experienced state B. Therefore, the only possibility is to move on to State C, a new
state of nature. The lessons here are: (1) when a change is made it should be thought out
carefully because the conditions before the change will never exist again; and (2) to
overcome a mistake in managing change usually means that new changes must be made
(state C) rather than trying to go back to where everything started.
Source: Jerry L Gray and Frederick A Starke, “Organisational Behaviour – Concepts and Applications”,
(3rd Edition), Charles E. Merrill Publishing Company, Columbus (1984) Page 556.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 339